hope in outside help. But we have not yet learned Ver. 20. all: "My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." What is meant by this is that when this terrible disease seizes upon a man, it spreads right throughout his body, so that from the foot to the head there is nothing but putrifying sores. Job tells us that the only part of his body that is still untouched is the skin of his teeth. How like this is to God's picture of ourselves! He looks into Isa. i. 6. our hearts, and sees "wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.”

Try and imagine the position of Job, and see a picture of yourself as God sees us. Deserted by every friend; the servants despise him; children make fun of him; his wife turns her back upon him; his physical condition nothing but disease— with the exception of the skin of his teeth. Then Ver. 21. he makes one last appeal to his friends: "Have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. Why do ye persecute me?" But here, again, there is no answer. So with us. When God convinces us of sin we see no help in man, no help in observances, in

morality, no hope of patching up-the disease of sin is too fearful.

At such a stage we should go further; for just at this time, when deserted and diseased, no hope, no light, Job casts himself upon God, who opens the windows of heaven, and his faith soars above the clouds and tempests, and he sees into the future and shouts, "Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! Vers. 23, 24 that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!" In his extremity he sees God, and, enraptured, gives forth this impassioned wish; what he sees is of such importance that he wishes all future ages might know what God has given him to know.

In those days when they wanted to write something that might never be forgotten they wrote it upon parchment; and, when more important still, they wrote with an iron pen on a rock, and filled the crevices thus made with lead. How his prayer has been answered! for this first glimpse into the Christian hope, and the resurrection of the body, is the best known text, perhaps, in the whole Bible.

When at the height of his disease and the ex

tent of his degradation, he rises into the magnifi Vers. 25-27. cent realms of faith, and shouts in triumph, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet, in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another."

Or, to put it in another way, to grasp its whole 1 Thess. iv.14-17. truth, perhaps we might say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that after this body is become dust, He, my Redeemer, shall come, and shall Himself stand upon the earth"; and then, pointing with scorn to his own body, he said, "Yes, I shall get worse than this; worms shall come and utterly destroy my flesh, yet, so powerful is my Redeemer, that out of this flesh of mine I shall see Him; yes, these eyes shall see Him, and not some one else's. But this flesh which you now despise shall be changed, and I, in my resurrection pure body, shall see the Lord."

O brethren, if we cannot realize this for ourselves, let us get down low before God and pray Him to give us a realization of our vileness; show

us that in us, in our flesh, there dwelleth no Rom. vii. 18 good thing; that there is no help in any human ordinances, that there is darkness between us and light; a great fence between us and liberty-we are undone. And then at that moment God allows the poor suppliant at His feet to gaze into heaven, and see there the pure, loving Redeemer, and be so enraptured with His love and beauty that, casting our all at His feet, we appropriate Himself and His power unto ourselves, and out of our hearts come such words as we have just read.

This language is the language of appropriation -"my Redeemer." Before Job could use such words as these he had appropriated unto himself the Redeemer. None of us can use such words unless we have taken the Redeemer for our own personal redemption. Jesus is mine; He is my Cant. ii. 16. personal property. The devils know that the Redeemer liveth, but they cannot use such language as this; all Christendom knows that our Redeemer liveth, but it is only those who take Him right unto themselves who can say, "I know chat my Redeemer liveth." That one little word links the lost sinner to the living Christ. I was

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talking once to some one, urging him to believe in Christ, to follow Christ, when another worker interposed with the remark, "It is Christ Himself our brother wants." These words flashed into the poor seeker's soul, and, with a strange look in his face, he said, "Yes, that is what I want." We do not want a faith, or platform of faiths, however good they may be, but Christ Himself. This is what God gives to every one who gets to the end of himself--not a religion, but Jesus Christ. It is also the language of faith. May I say it without being thought coarse? that as poor Job lay there that day, rotting to death, it must have been wonderful faith that enabled him to say, "Out of this flesh I shall stand in His presence." And yet he could say it; and, what is more, know that it was absolutely true. Do we not want this? We are unfit to go to heaven: God is so holy, and we so impure. But God opens to us the vision of His great love, and by faith we can see Isa. iii. 5. ourselves healed by His stripes. Yes; you and I can stand and look into our own hearts and see our own unworthiness; and see, as we must if we examine ourselves, how unfit we are to go to